(Shoshoni, WY) – It’s a little brighter at Shoshoni than just a week ago. The Wranglers were on the cusp of either dropping their 9-man football season entirely or dropping into 6-man. Neither is the case.
Shoshoni head coach Tony Truempler has 14 boys out with the possibility of a couple more.
Truempler, who resigned his position last spring, came back when no one applied for the position. Joining him is veteran assistant coach Jody Good and Eric Murphy.
“We’re still playing a junior varsity schedule,” Truempler said. “Most of them have never played football before.”
Though they haven’t played, they are loyal to Truempler, who is the longtime, successful Wrangler wrestling coach. Ten of the players are wrestlers.
While the numbers are better for practice, where they can get a more realistic look at opposing offenses and defenses, the question of who they are going to play remains unanswered.
“The schedule is up in the air,” Truempler said. “I met with the boys on Friday, and we hashed some stuff out. We watched a little 6-man. They want to play football. If we have to play 6-man on Tuesday and 9-man on Friday, we’ll do it. We just want to play ball.”
By its nature, 9-man football was designed for teams with smaller numbers. That makes scheduling JV games more of a challenge.
Rocky Mountain, Greybull and Wind River all have sufficient numbers to play the Wranglers with a junior varsity team, but that’s about it. Big Piney and Saratoga are a long way from Shoshoni so scheduling a junior varsity game isn’t likely. Wyoming Indian’s numbers are rising and they might represent a varsity game for Shoshoni.
“We’re in a bad spot, but a good spot at the same time,” Truempler said. “The kids are looking at this as we’re going to rebuild Wrangler football. We’ll take on whoever wants to play us.”
To be clear, despite earlier reports from some news outlets, Shoshoni is not canceling their season.
“We have a lot of work to do, we have guys who haven’t played before but they’re pretty athletic and have some speed,” Truempler said. “We can transition my 9-man offense to 6-man pretty easily. Formations are similar with just some linemen missing. I don’t think it’s going to be as big an adjustment as we thought it would be.”
Shoshoni has a Zero Week jamboree with Dubois and Riverside at Riverton this Friday beginning at 5 p.m.
“We’re not sure it’s 6-man or a hybrid,” Truempler said. “We’ll prepare for both.”